The bulk of these talk about how it needs to get back to a better place so that they can do what they want and dream of and how the state of music is in disrepair. So in a single statement, do I agree things are not at their best and do I wish things were different? Well yes, but the fact comes down to where things are at and what has to be done in the here and now.

You can blame, complain, criticize and bitch all you want. You can spend all this time showing and showcasing where things are going wrong. You can write about it, talk about it and read about it for days on end, but in the end how does that help you get to where you want to be?

Of course you need to stay educated and on top of what is going on but spend your time problem solving instead of problem revolving. Basically, if a building is burning, call the fire department and/or get some water to help put it out! This would be instead of standing there watching it burn and complaining about how someone left a stove on or was playing with matches or some other reason to discuss why the fire is burning and how it happened and how it is sucks for the person.

It is about being proactive and professional to make the moves you need to instead of wasting the time and the energy complaining how you are doing it the same way as some one did years ago and not having the same results.

Yes, the economy is in the shitter, yes, sales as a whole have gone done and people are going out less. Yes, it is much harder to get a deal or get a tour or get a quality manager or be heard or whatever your complaint is. You can insert it here in this paragraph.

Instead, find out how those that are doing it right now are able to make it happen. Learn the new methods instead of wishing the old ones worked and get out of the place of all the reasons that are proving why you cant and replace them with actions of how you can.

I write a lot about what is wrong with aspects of the music industry but always tries to tie in the ideas on how to take each of these elements and make them right or at least a little better. It is about identifying the problem, researching and creating solutions, then executing and in many cases repeating this process. Yes, some of the solutions wont work, some will fail as well, but at least you are finding out what isn’t working and working toward a realistic and forward moving plan instead of laying back and laying down as the industry drives over you.

Lastly, the music industry has always been a mess. It will always be a mess. While some problems have arisen from the economy and the internet and media as a whole, these past few years of problems all around have brought light to issues that artists having been fighting with for decades. Revealing and exposing issues that were unseen and unheard but now are coming in to the lime light. Use this time, in this economy, to make change instead of blame. Work to find ways or research how others are creating ways to make revenue, to create, to gain exposure, to stay in control and to achieve their goals. This will make you stronger and more successful in the near future as well as be prepared and a better problem solver for what ever issue or issues will come up next on the horizon.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenadeentertainment.com
http://facebook.com/lorenweisman
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in March 23rd, 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

Release Date

The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business will be coming out on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010. I have set the date and though there are a lot of things that have to be done by then to make it happen, it will happen. It is time to get this out and I am announcing this release/deadline to both make people aware but also to kick my tail in to gear to make it happen.

Release Party

The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business release party will be in Seattle, Washington. However, we are not locked down with a location yet. We may do a few different locations and dates, so stayed tuned and as things finalize, it will be announced.

Final Edit

I want to thank Laura Zandstra and Marion Li-Pino for the amazing editing of this book down the final stretch. These two have helped give the final touch to make this in to the book that it is. I also want to thank Peter Fernandez, Corinne Bonneau, Alyssa Horn, Christie Purpura and Scott Ross for helping with edits of the various blogs and the organization and structure along the way.

The final edit of The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business will be done by this Saturday, February 13th, 2010 and we will be submitting the book for advanced reviews starting that day as well.

The Final Toppings.

I have a photo shoot scheduled for the inside jacket this Tuesday and will also have the final graphics back for the book by the end of this week. Darlin Gray is doing an amazing job with the graphics for the templates and demos that will be available for view on the website that will go along with the book.

The Coming soon is Finally Here!

It has been an amazing journey with this project and I am glad it is coming to fruition. The next month and some are going to be pretty crazy and jammed packed to make this deadline and release happen, but I know it will happen. It took a great deal longer than I expected and I learned more about the literary industry and the world of books than I ever imagined.

A lot more information will also be solidified as far as the speaking engagements, media and interview dates as well as other press and publicity surrounding the book in the next six weeks. As dates and locations are locked in, I will be announcing them on the website at http://www.braingrenademusic.com.

More updates to come as things continue to solidify.

Loren

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenadeentertainment.com
http://facebook.com/lorenweisman
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

That’s not to say feeling overwhelmed is unreasonable. The music business is intimidating once you begin to look at the business aspects and everything that you need to do to become self sufficient as well as effective and productive, but there’s a little secret people don’t know: the little stuff can be just as important as the big stuff. It’s about forward motion, and forward motion can take place in the smallest snatches of free time. Whether you’re waiting for someone else to do vocals on a recording before you mix or you’re waiting on a tech guy or girl to set up your website, there’s always stuff that can be done.

A simple checklist can include:

Updating a networking site.

This is just the start of a list of small things that don’t take up much time but can help you to be incredibly effective and move forward in the right direction. These are the quickies that add up. For example, putting up a picture on a photo site might not seem like much, but if you’re consistently signing up for new photo sites and putting up your pictures, even if you only sign up for one free photo site a week and only put up one picture a day, you’re creating activity and continuity. After a month you’ll have four photo sites and twenty new photos up that are being optimized and seen by people who may not have seen you in other places.

In the same way, that one little venue you research can be added to a database of venues you research each day, so by the time you’re either self booking or working with a booking agent, you have a solid and extensive list from which to work, complete with all the information you may need.

Like I said: it’s not always about the big things. Of course those things matter, but small things can be built into larger things. Yes, it’s wonderful when you have five straight hours to dedicate to the business of music, but even if you’re only dedicating five minutes a day–especially on those days when excuses creep in–you’re moving further than many others who simply do nothing at all. Just make sure when you crawl into bed you can respond to the question “What did you do for your career today?” with an answer that shows effective productivity, regardless of how little or how much.

These small steps go the distance in the long run; make sure you take one or two each day. If it’s truly your dream to make it in music, then it’s going to come down to the continuity and the commitment of the big and the small on a regular basis. Hey–it’s how you learned and continue to know the instrument you play; just apply the same “practice concept” to the business side of your career.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenadeentertainment.com
http://facebook.com/lorenweisman
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in March 23rd, 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

So it seems everyone is on Facebook now and most bands are making the move to using it as one of their priority networking sites. Myspace while still a strong site is taking a backseat to the Facebook revolution in the past year and some. Just as it is important to get the word out and do your marketing, promotion and advertising on Facebook, it is also important to be effective and respectful to get the kind of attention you want. Here are five quick tips to consider applying to your Facebook use in order to be as effective and respectful as possible.

1. If I don’t want to be your fan, stop asking!

It is fine to ask some one to join your fan page, but if they decide not to for whatever the reason, then leave them be. Maybe they prefer to be on your personal page, maybe they don’t sign up for fan pages, maybe they just aren’t a fan. Whatever the reason, the constant asking to be a fan has pissed many people off and will even get them to drop you as a friend or block you.

If they don’t want to be a fan, leave it be. Most musicians put a bulk of their updates on their personal pages as well. You can also easily add a link to your fan page so they can go there themselves if they want. Another tip is to leave the fan page public so people can check it out if they want with out joining. Don’t spam for fans.

2. If some one doesn’t add you as a friend, do not continue to try to get them to.

Not everyone is going to like you and even those that may like you, might not want to have you as a friend on their Facebook page for whatever reason. Again like above, don’t grill people to be your friend. It is annoying and if you are adding some one, drop a short note as to why you are adding them. Make it personal and draw people in, it will come off a lot less like you are mass adding or spamming. If some one chooses not to add you, let it be and don’t chase it. They may eventually turn around and add you at another point.

3. Don’t chase a dropped friend.

I have heard this from numerous people who have chosen to drop a friend off Facebook and then later get an email or even a call asking why.

Don’t do it! They have their reasons and the last thing they want is a call asking why. Maybe you spam too much, maybe you over post, over update, over whatever. Maybe they are trying to limit friends or keep information a little more personal. Who knows, but let it be. On the other hand if you feel some one is going to be to oversensitive and annoying and you want to drop them, then hide them so you don’t have to see their posts. Just don’t be that person to chase after someone who dropped you as a friend on Facebook, cause when you think about it, that is pretty damn sad.

4. Don’t send flowers, gifts, dogs, farm animals and all those other app crap items to people.

If you are trying to use Facebook to grab the attention of people or trying to connect with fans, new or old, use the information that is yours, the updates that are yours and don’t send gifts, animals, flowers and all that other crap. There are a great number of people that find it incredibly annoying and at the same time as your updates show you sending a flower or scoring on mafia wars or whatever, it really isn’t doing much for marketing your music or your shows. It also will make some people want to hide your updates and miss out on the real information and real updates you want them to have.

5. Stop with the boring updates and news that is pointless.

Still kind of tying in to the last one. Skip on the “I just ate a sandwich” or “jeeze, I wish I-90 wasn’t so backed up” or some quote that only you and a handful of people might get. This also includes not posting ten times a day. Be that person or that band that posts up stuff you want to read, watch, view or whatever. I am not saying don’t make it all business but limit yourself and you will have people that will be watching out for your posts instead of being tired and skipping over them or worse, hiding them.

Conclusion

In the end, some times it is better to have a few pages, one where it is just for you and your friends and one for the world you are trying to reach as a whole. I know a number of people that preface their personal pages with a statement that says “this is my personal page for friends and family, if you want more on my music or my band, join this page as a fan or add me on that page”. Make sure you are grabbing the attention of those that you want to get attention from. Social Networks have become a large part of reaching out to new fans and new people but it is crucial to make sure you are reaching out with the strongest voice possible. It is also important to make sure you message, your music, your marketing is not getting lost in the mix of silly applications, excessive postings and even being hidden or dropped as a friend.

Be interesting. Make sure your posts are something that will draw people in to your page and make them look around. Update photos and videos weekly. Make sure the information on shows are detailed with the who, what, why, when, where and how. Give them what they need!

Clean up your page often, so that when some one new comes to it, they can see all sorts of interesting things about you and your music. It can only take minutes a week to make the impact to gain new friends and new connections that will draw people to shows, buying merchandise and music as well as building a fan base that wants to stay connected.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenadeentertainment.com
http://facebook.com/lorenweisman
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in March 23rd, 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

The old one

For the previous and much longer blog I wrote about at the beginning of last season, see http://musicindustrynewswire.com/2009/01/20/min963_215014.php. This entry is more of a summary, with a couple other thoughts that many don’t don’t consider – or don’t say out loud if they do.

Still the same make and model of foolish hope and unrealistic dreams.

I couldn’t make myself watch the season opener, so I decided to catch a few of the auditions on Hulu the following morning. It is the same old game with different names and faces.

After nine years, it is the ignorance of those “potential” idols that makes me rant and the uber fans I truly find annoying. I can still watch in the early episodes now and then. I can enjoy seeing the unjustifiably inflated egos get crushed, I can marvel at the ones that can’t conceive not making it to Hollywood since they are already stars in their own right.

I know a few other viewers that check in just to laugh at the absurdities. It is fun, it can be entertaining, but at the same time, I don’t watch full episodes and I turn it off all together after the initial auditions. One reason is that I am old, and when you reach a certain point, those absurdities only go so far. Another reason is that I am simply not much of a fan.

The freaky fans.

You know the ones. What’s the word I’m searching for… “Psychotic”, that’s it. Kind of like a quote I once heard: “I got no problem with Jesus and I got no problem with Elvis, its just some of their super fans that piss me off.” I feel the same way about the conspiracy-ridden American idol fans that post on message boards. How this is rigged and why didn’t so and so go further and how could they not send this person to Hollywood… They seem to have lost all perspective and be completely beyond the reality that this is a TV show.

That’s right Virginia, it’s entertainment!

It is a TV show. And a TV show is not going to be about the best singers in the country competing against each week after week, episode after episode. That would be boring. First rule of entertainment: Thou Shalt Not be boring.

“Can you believe this or can you believe that?” That’s not boring. That’s market appeal. That’s what draws the 30-some million viewers that watched on Tuesday night. That, in short, is A SHOW.

So, let’s go back to that boring best singer competition and pretend it is a TV show. Add in personalities, egos, people that down right suck, insanity, tempers, contestants crying, contestants screaming, contestants cursing – and then bathe it all in a hot pool of hopes, dreams, delusions of grandeur, spotlights, the taste of fame, the promise of riches and popularity, oh and yes, a few very truly talented singers sprinkled on top. Now you have a TV show, an entertaining, high grossing, well-produced show that has been going nine years strong.

Did I say strong? I lowballed it. Stronger than most people will ever know when you figure in the back end, what is actually going on behind the scenes with the contracts and all that small writing that no one pays attention to anyway.

So those people that claim there were better singers who should have gone farther than this person or that person: they might just be right – but at the same time, the person who didn’t advance might not be very interesting. Welcome to entertainment, being interesting is kind of important.

In the end, American Idol is about entertainment, selling ad time and keeping viewership up. It is not about carefully honing in on the best possible talent out there. The show’s concept feeds off a jaded and unrealistic view of the music industry.

Still, they aren’t lying to anyone. You have to sign a contract to audition, and you give up many rights pertaining to your name, your music and your career. But, come on! Who cares about all that? Who actually reads the contract all the way through? These people are signing on the dotted line to get on the list. The few that do move forward will later learn about the details spelled out in all those paragraphs above that dotted line.

I’m not saying watch the show or don’t like the show. I am just saying it is a TV show. It is not the catalyst that many make it out to be. For the average contestant, it is not going to change your life or make it better. It is not going to be your ticket to riches. It is not going to make all your dreams come true. For more than 99% of them, it won’t even bring that cherished 15 minutes of fame. It doesn’t work that way. After 8 complete seasons, there are only about 15 idol contestants with successful and self-sustaining careers (even with those horrible controlling contracts).

Enjoy the show, sure. But understand you’re watching a Judy Garland movie from the 1940s, not a blueprint to pursue a real singing career in the real world.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenademusic.com

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in March 23rd, 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

They say any promotion is good promotion, but in the day where there is so much out there, it is time to look stronger and much more effective. I am pointing this specifically at the people that put up those anonymous ads where they hype their own group while trying to make it look like they’re a fan when everyone knows it’s them and to many people, they just look stupid for it. Craigslist is a perfect example to see some of these.

I can not tell you how many times I have run across ads where people write things like, I just saw this band and they are incredible, one of the best I have ever seen, man these guys are gong all the way to the top! My favorite part is when they accidently use their existing accounts and the email instead of being anonymous is actually one of the bands emails.

Now flat out direct advertising and asking people to check out your new song or tell us what you think of our album and even adding some reviews is a much better way to go. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a band and then decided to go set up an advertisement on a site like craigslist or another networking site. I can’t recall the last time I did.

Take the honest approach. Don’t use stupid self-hype to try to promote your self. Use stronger promoting, marketing and branding to get yourself out there. Stop selling yourself as someone else and concentrate on attracting people to you and your music honestly. Come off with a strong air of assertiveness and confidence but at the same time don’t go out to claim you are the greatest thing in the world. You set the bar really high for one and for two you are making yourself look dumb in front of a lot of people. Under promise and then over deliver, that way if someone thinks you are the greatest of all time, they are making that decision for themselves and they will be sure to forwarding on your music through their own networking sites and to their circles instead of some anonymous ad that everyone knows is actually coming from the band.

Your fans and future fans are smarter than you think and they are being solicited with more music than you think. Everyone is out there pushing them selves so when you put your self out there a little stronger, a little more honest, a little more professional and standing out with all those elements, you will attract a lot more attention and bring more people to listen to you. It is ok to shout your name from the rooftops, just don’t pretend to be someone else doing the shouting.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenademusic.com
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc
http://www.facebook.com/lorenweisman

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

Everyone has heard the old joke, “what do you call a drummer with no girlfriend? Homeless!” It’s funny but also, in a number of cases, true. There are numerous aspiring musicians that are supported by their family, their girlfriends, their boyfriends and plenty of others when it comes to money. That is not always a bad thing. If communication is good, if expectations are clear, and the guidelines for support are set in place before a dollar changes hands, that help can be worth its weight in gold. That help can bring the artist to the next level if they are struggling. It can make things a little easier. It’s not a golden ticket, it’s not a back door from paying dues and learning invaluable lessons. It simply makes a long hard road a little easier for a few miles.

The right help

When the musician is getting help while he or she is doing all they can do help themselves, you have a good healthy situation. As the potential helper, ask if you are you giving money for something specific and something that will make a difference. Is there a budget in place? Is the musician planning for both the best and worse case scenarios? Lastly, is this going to help both in the short term and long term? If the answer is yes to all these questions, you have a good situation where helping out will actually be that: helpful.

Whether you are making a donation, a loan or an investment, the clearer you and the recipient can be, the better. Define clearly where the money (or whatever) will go and what it will do. By having an understanding among all parties as to who you are helping, why you are helping, what you want to see out of it, when you will be paid back or time frames if it is a loan and how it will benefit the artist, you magnify the benefit for everyone involved. Now, some people have very generous hearts and may genuinely feel they “don’t need to see anything out of it.” But even so, they will want to see their gift or loan actually help. They will want it to have the most positive impact it can, right? Just as the helper is being generous to the musician, it will help ten fold if the musician is held accountable, if they clearly understand there is an obligation in accepting a gift—the obligation to use it well, to deliver on the donor’s aim of making things better. When the above is not clearly stated and clearly understood by both sides, it can lead to the wrong help.

The wrong help

Everyone has heard the stories or seen the examples: The musician that is mooching off of a girlfriend, family, or others. The musician that expects everything to be taken care of for them so they can “concentrate on their art”. The artist who has absolutely no awareness how they are using and abusing those around them. You have seen the movies where the musician is laying on the couch explaining what he needs to be feeling or what has to happen as the girlfriend is paying the rent. Outside of the movies, it’s also the phone and the electric she’s paying as well, in addition to paying his tab so he can drink at the local music clubs or bars under the amazing guise of “networking”.

Another typical scenario: the musician that looks to use given/donated/invested money for the things that are not going to help his career. That particular artist that feels eating expensive meals out, hanging out in bars or spending money on clothes will some how fast forward their careers. These are the people that are just seeing it as spending money and not having consideration for how you are trying to help and flat out abusing that help.

Then there is that attitude of “help me now and I will bring you with me as I become a millionaire.” You take care of me now and I will take care of you later is the other one I love hearing. It is pure crap, and yet many people waste their time, their money, and their patience not-really-helping (aka “enabling”) these musicians to go on doing absolutely nothing.

Recently, I interviewed a number of women that dated musicians: successful, failed, and aspiring ones. The stories are a book in themselves. The things that were said, the promises made, and the explanations given for the lack of forward motion when they came back looking for more.

In the end, those helping lost their money, lost their relationships, lost their trust in these artists (which carries over to all artists in most cases, every drummer gets the bill for that one in the joke). And for all that loss, nothing improved for the artists. It isn’t a zero sum equation, where at least this person’s loss does some good over there. Everyone loses because of these supremely selfish individuals.

This goes for both sexes, too. Women do it too. People use people, it is an unfortunate and simple fact of life. The best thing you can do is watch for situations that are not clear—and which resist your attempts to clarify what is being asked and to what use it will be put. If it seems a little shaky, go with your gut feeling.

Conclusion

If you are going to help out, then make sure it is truly helping and not enabling. Make sure the details are there. Make sure the clarity is there. Make sure everyone understands the details. Whether it is written out or verbally discussed in depth, the answers to those HOW, WHY, WHAT and HOW questions above need to be clearly understood by everyone involved. Set goals, set time frames. Set worst case scenario plans. If you are supporting a guy while he is in the studio, make sure he is getting a job as soon as he gets out of the studio. Basic things like that.

Watch out for those that might use you, take advantage of you, and potentially end up hurting you. To the musician, remember every minute of every day that that is a human being with wants and needs of their own who is helping you, not the life support for a wallet. Show that you are worth that investment and/or worthy of their generosity.

Do not enable a musician with serious delusions of grandeur. It’s that simple: Don’t feed the energy creature. Don’t let them cost you a small fortune to further the bloating of a big ego. I am not saying don’t help or don’t be generous. DO give, DO be generous. But DO look first. Look at what you are doing, how you are doing it, and if it really will be helpful.

© 2010 Loren Weisman

http://www.braingrenademusic.com
http://www.facebook.com/lorenweisman
http://www.twitter.com/bgellc

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

For more information on the book, where to buy it and the exact release date, please visit http://www.artistsguide.net. Updates and information will start being posted there in the new year.

So with out anymore delay, here are the 51 blogs for 2009. I missed a week somewhere, not sure where, but I am good with 51, hope you are too.

The Table of Contents for the blogs of 2009 from Loren Weisman

1. Dec 28, 2009 – The 2009 Blogs from Loren Weisman.
2. Dec 21, 2009 – Endorsements.
3. Dec 14, 2009 – Have I Got A Bridge To Sell You!
4. Dec 7, 2009 – But it makes sense to me (rpt).
5. Nov 30, 2009 – So now you get it, but do you really?
6. Nov 23, 2009 – First Impressions, more important than ever.
7. Nov 16, 2009 Ten Tips that Every Musician Should Apply…
8. Nov 8, 2009 – What Are You Listening To?
9. Nov 2, 2009 – Posting and announcing your gigs.
10. Oct 26, 2009 – Ending agreements in the beginning for bands.
11. Oct 19, 2009 – A rant about the work ethic of musicians.
12. Oct 12, 2009 – Cancellations and rescheduling.
13. Oct 5, 2009 – Drive and determination are far from enough.
14. Sep 28, 2009 – Honor.
15. Sep 21, 2009 – Set lists for the soundman or sound woman.
16. Sep 14, 2009 – Session players for recordings.
17. Sep 7, 2009 – Take it with a grain of salt.
18. Aug 31, 2009 – Keeping to a plan and when to change it.
19. Aug 24, 2009 – Care and maintenance of networking sites.
20. Aug 17, 2009 – Play with your food.
21. Aug 10, 2009 – That list of names.
22. Aug 3, 2009 – American Idol – Take 2.
23. Jul 27, 2009 – The tone of your voice.
24. Jul 20, 2009 – Top 5 reasons you will fail in music.
25. Jul 13, 2009 – Are you content with your content?
26. Jul 6, 2009 – Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar Overview.
27. Jun 29, 2009 – But it makes sense to me.
28. Jun 22, 2009 – I’m Back. Sort of.
29. Jun 8, 2009 – Give the engineer some.
30. Jun 1, 2009 – The Elevator Pitch.
31. May 25, 2009 – Pretending to be more than you are.
32. May 18, 2009 – Do the Math.
33. May 11, 2009 – Postering.
34. May 4, 2009 – The best you got?
35. Apr 27, 2009 – Earshot Awareness.
36. Apr 19, 2009 – Arguing.
37. Apr 11, 2009 – The Hidden Critic.
38. Apr 6, 2009 – Bartering.
39. Mar 30, 2009 – Maintaining the Momentum.
40. Mar 23, 2009 – It’s Never The Right Time.
41. Mar 16, 2009 – Too Much Information.
42. Mar 9, 2009 – Turning your fans into detectives.
43. Mar 2, 2009 – Extending your online networking.
44. Feb 23, 2009 – I spy..myself on stage. Video yourself!
45. Feb 16, 2009 – How many mixes for each song?
46. Feb 9, 2009 – The Art of the email contact.
47. Feb 2, 2009 – First Impressions.
48. Jan 26, 2009 – Delaying instant gratification for success.
49. Jan 20, 2009 – American Idol – A different view.
50. Jan 12, 2009 – Handing over Responsibility.
51. Jan 5, 2009 – Shows and appearance redundancy.

Thank you for reading, your comments and your emails, both positive and negative. I appreciate all feedback. I hope everyone has a great new year ahead! Remember, Adapt and achieve for the greatest chance of success in today’s music business.

© 2009 Loren Weisman

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in 2010. For updates and information, visit http://www.artistsguide.net for more information on the book.
For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

Seriously, No BS! This over saturation of supposed professional services is almost as pathetic as those that pay to use them and are suddenly surprised the quality or end result is nowhere near what was promised initially.

It’s your responsibility, not theirs!

Blame seems to be so easily assigned after the fact with many people. Well, this producer screwed up my album or this teacher taught me this wrong or this PR person didn’t get me out there like they claimed they would. Lets add in the managers that talk about breaking you out to grammy status or that new record label that has serious connections to take you where you want to go? Time to install, activate and use that thing between your ears, that voice in your brain of common sense and that very rational and very reasonable sense of doubt.

If you are going to pay good money, or commit to an agreement where you are working with some one for an extended period of time, don’t you want to do the research to make sure it is the right decision? It seems like common knowledge, yet so many people don’t.

I take a number of calls from bands that say they want to get out of their contracts or get out of agreements that they foolishly signed way too fast with out reading through them thoroughly. There is usually nothing I can do to help them. They signed away their songs, their control or their rights for a period of time with some new wannabe that doesn’t know what they are doing but have been able to use a boilerplate of some one that does. Main point here, check out the person, the company or the service you are getting involved with and if they are rushing you or something seems off, put up a few extra red flags.

It is your responsibility to look them up, make sure you are able to both ask the questions you have regarding their services and get the answers you need. Also watch out for people being defensive, vague or confusing. Watch and listen for contradictions.

Don’t be fooled by appearance

Anyone can get a cool website up with all sorts of flashy pictures, graphics, images and pages. It comes down to the important stuff though, the content, the experience, the delivery, the clarity and the clear understanding of what you are getting.

I have seen incredible sites that advertise all these things they can do for you but do not give any idea about how. Now on the same side of the coin, certain people in the service industry can not give away every single idea but you should be able to ask and get the basics answered as far as who, what, where, why, when and how, as well as how much.

These questions should be answered with experience, confidence and clear understanding. Now it is true, there are people out there that are just starting out and might not have all the experience, but if you chose that person or that route, are you getting the discount or fair price you should be getting and making sure you are getting your moneys worth. It comes down to the honesty as well as looking through the sales pitch to what is really going on there.

Teachers

If it is a teacher, find out who they have studied from, what style or styles they teach best, ask to speak to a few students. References are a good thing. If you are a teacher, make sure to build up that information and have students current or past that can be contacted.

Managers, Consultants, PR and other services

This is a big one to really check the references on. Talk to bands, talk to venues, talk to other industry contacts that this manager has dealt with. Remember it is not always about the success stories, it is about the work that was done on the part of the service or the person that did there part to put the client in the best place for the best chance at success. Some services such as consultants and PR people can fall in to this. Some of these services and people can do exactly what they say they will do but other elements out of their control have failed.

Again this is about figuring out what is promised, what is delivered and what has to be done on the part of the bands and musicians. Anyone can claim to be a consultant, but when it comes to advice and direction, where are they coming from? Do you get a sense that there is information and direction that will be delivered in a professional way that can help you? Do they offer some free information or even a free session to start? Are they honest in their advertising only promising what can be delivered with a clear explanation of how it works?

These are things that should be there. Flashy ads that over promise and under deliver take up so much of the classified ad space in music magazines and on websites like craigslist. Look toward the companies and services that explain in detail and clearly define what they do and what they don’t do.

For those doing it right, you still night have to make it better

For those managers, consultants PR people and other services, with the saturation of ads on the internet and every newbie or fake jackass out there that claims to be this or that, they are messing with how you are being viewed and it may be time to make those adjustments online and in your ads and your websites as well as your documents and printed materials. It is not saying that it wasn’t good enough or you are any less of a service. But now with way too many people with way too little to offer are claiming they can do way much more than they actually can and it ends up making you just look like another one of them.

When I first had my website for my music production and consulting company, it was six pages. It was fine and I got the work I looked for but as more and more people started calling themselves music producers and music consultants, I found myself and my company being lumped in with the rest. At the advice of a friend and marketing consultant, I added a blog, I added a lot more information on exactly what I do and what I don’t. I went on to explain the who, what, where, why, when and how. I added small details of exactly what I was about, what I believed in and what I was up to as well as what I had done. In turn, it turned things around and help to allow potential clients have a clear understanding as well as turning the site in to a resource even if you aren’t a client.

Conclusion

Ask questions, do your research. Regardless of what you are spending, make sure it is worth your money and time. Put in the time and effort to find out if you should spend that money. Don’t be sold on flashy ads, crazy sales or discounts and all the other flash. Make sure it is solid. Don’t take the person or service you are hiring word for it, find out all you can to be able to make the best decisions. There are way too many out there that should not be claiming to be what they are and do things the wrong way just as there are reputable and honorable people and services out there. It sucks that there isn’t a filter, but complain all you want, it will not change. So you have to be the source to make sure you are making the best decision with what ever you need. Research, look up, look in to and find out all you can about what you need from a teacher to a producer, a manager to a small label and everywhere in between. It will make all the difference in the end.

© 2009 Loren Weisman

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in 2010.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998

Don’t get me wrong, adding elements of stretching the mind and being creative is a great thing, but think about it as a later step or being placed a little deeper in your marketing rather than right there where people get their first impressions. Make it something that fans will have to dig in to as opposed to overly confusing the new listener or first time visitor to one of your social networking sites or website.

Wild stories, confusing bios, songs that make no sense or tie in to the more experimental side of you can be red lights for many people to not want to dig deeper. For example, if you are a grunge/industrial type band with fast loops, dirty guitars and in your face samples with brash harmonies and powerful hooks, having song sample number one on your site be one of the tunes that is least like your sound or one of your more experimental and say softer and more trancesque tune that you use right in between two powerhouse tracks, you may loose the interest right off the bat of the listener that happens to pop on to your website for a minute.

Get over yourself.

The reality is that when new people are visiting your website, your networking site or one of your song sample sites, most are only going to be there for a few seconds unless they are drawn in. There are 40 million Myspace music pages and that number continues to grow even as Myspace continues to go down in the rankings in the social networking world. People are being tossed links from spam emails, from friends, from strangers and from third parties everyday.

While every musician wants to think that people are spending a number of minutes listening to every sample, looking at every picture and reading every piece of text, the truth is the majority are only spending seconds and moving on very quickly. We are a nation of ADD, ADHD and every other acronym that points to the bulk of us having less and less of an attention span everyday.

These people have so many choices and so many options so it is up to you to grab them, wow them, explain and showcase to them and pull them in to want more. It is crucial just like having a fast pitch for industry professionals to also have that same fast pitch and grab for the fans and the masses.

Good Ideas vs Bad Ideas

A couple strong examples are the bands that have very fast loading webpages that immediately showcase the logo, the tagline, the image and information easily. Now on the other coin, there is a website for a band that actually has a small animal that walks around the page for some 10 seconds before the page opens and you cant skip it. This may be creative and cute for the band and for fans that know something about the reason behind the path and the creature but for a browsing new person, it just comes off as stupid. Another site has a band bio that is so small and so long with so many applications that have been added to their page that you are not sure who’s information is what, not to mention the slow load from having so much on the page.

Some of these websites or social networking sites where you are forced to scroll down or wait to find or fish out information is not helping you capture the new fans that are coming across your site. On the same side with the music samples. Instead of putting up total songs why not put up samples and a lot more of them?

Think about it, just as you should put together a small demo sample for any industry person so they can listen to the bulk of your songs with out the bulk of time it takes to listen to every song, you can do the same for your fans. Supply 20 to 30 seconds fade in and fade out samples that are clearly marked as samples with the time in the title. This way when a new fan sees the player or what ever you are using to present your music, they know right off the bat, they are getting samples and may just listen to them all.

This also gives you a chance to choose what they listen to and what you want to highlight in the song, instead of them flipping through and potentially just listening to the beginnings of all your tunes if they listen that far. Think of it like giving them a sample of everything and at that point making them want to dig deeper.

Conclusion

It is fine to go deep and make people think, make people have to search and challenge your fans but first get those fans through the door, interested in you and wanting to be challenged. Make sure you have created a crystal clear image that will demonstrate you, sell you and entice them to want more. It is a hard thing to sometimes separate what how you see something against how the bulk of the public will. Remember just cause you get it or it makes sense to you, it doesn’t mean it will to most people. You are the artist, you are right smack in the middle of it all and a big part of pulling in and creating the fan base is working on creating the right appearance and marketing to pull them in the audiences that are sifting through thousands of sites and turning them in to interested fans.

Also remember, with all the other bands on all the other sites and the over saturation of music and artists that are out there, it is crucial to pull them in to want to see more first. Make the first presentation easy, fast and simple so that people can get a clear idea of the overview of you, your music and what you are about, then you can start playing with the intricacies and extra details.

© 2009 Loren Weisman

Watch out for Loren Weisman’s “Realistic Music Careers 101 Seminar” coming to a city near you and Loren’s book “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business” coming in 2010.

For more information on Loren, bookings or press inquiries, please contact his publicist and agent, Jenée Arthur at Rellihan Satterlee. Email: jenart@relsat.com Phone: 206-588-1998